SECT. til. CHEMICAL PHENOMENA. 3 1 



ed, and his language re-echoed, by Professor Will- 

 denow of Berlin, without seeming to know any 

 thing of the facts and experiments by which it has 

 been disproved.* 



M. Hollo was of opinion that the oxygene con- Rollo, 

 sumed in the process of germination is in part 

 absorbed by the grain, and assimilated to its sub- 

 stance ; and in part employed along with the carbon 

 of the seed to form carbonic acid. His opinion 

 was founded on the following fact which he had 

 observed in watching the process of the germination 

 of some grains of Barley confined in an artificial 

 atmosphere. When the seeds were made to germi- 

 nate in pure oxygene gas, the oxygene gradually 

 disappeared, and its place was found to be occupied by 

 carbonic acid gas.-}~ The above conclusion seemed 

 to follow almost necessarily from the premises; 

 but as the phenomena had not yet been subjected 

 to any particular analysis, it could only be regarded 

 in the light of a conjecture. 



In this stage of inquiry Saussure the younger, Saussure 

 having directed his attention to the subject, per- you nger. 

 ceived that the only means of ascertaining the fact 

 was that of comparing the quantity of oxygene gas 

 consumed with the quantity entering into the com- 

 position of carbonic acid gas evolved during the 

 process. If the quantity of the former proved to 

 be greater than that of the latter, it was to be 



* Princ. of Bot. Engl. Trans, p. 257. 

 f Anna!, du Chira. vol. xxv. p. 37- 



